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Biotech secures £29m after delisting from AIM market

Image credit: Max Acronym / Shutterstock

Computational drug discovery firm e-therapeutics has secured £28.9m in funding weeks after delisting from the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market as it explores floating in the US.

The company raised the capital through subscriptions led by funds managed by existing investors M&G Investment Management and Richard Griffiths.

Founded in 2001, e-therapeutics integrates computational power and biological data to discover potentially life-transforming RNAi medicines. The company said it will use the fresh capital to initiate clinical trials and accelerate the development and integration of AI systems into its computational platform.

Back in April, e-therapeutics issued a statement saying it intended to quit London’s AIM market, citing a “lack of institutional UK interest” and “risk appetite.” It ceased trading on the AIM market on 9 May.

The company confirmed it will “explore the option of listing on NASDAQ in due course”.

CEO Ali Mortazavi said the team had stuck with AIM despite the “dramatic rise in the US biotech indices” in 2023, but added that the failure to secure “sufficient engagement” reflected that it was time to move on from the “limited audience” and set eyes on US markets instead.

Mortazavi isn’t the only one to criticise the gap in valuations between UK and US-listed firms. In April, the former boss of UK oil giant Shell said that the company is “massively undervalued” compared to its US-listed rivals.

It comes after tech companies such as Arm and Imagination have opted to float in New York over London

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